"Quality tools are the key to unlocking your woodworking potential"

Category Archives: Tools

During this stay at home time, I decided to finish my loooong term project, my Split Top Roubo Workbench (more on the actual workbench in a later entry). I was working on the legs and benchtop. With this design the dog hole closest to the end or wagon vise (BenchCrafted) is directly over my right leg. The plans call for a hole drilled vertically down the leg to allow for the dog to seat flush with the top. That’s all well and good but how do you get it out?

Bench dog down, how do you get it out when it’s down?

The BenchCrafted plans call for a largish hole to be drilled on the face of the leg to poke your finger into to prop it up.

Umm, yeah, this solution it’s not for me

This did not sit well with me for some reason. It’s not particularly that I have an issue with holes in my bench leg, per se (I don’t mind the dog holes for my holdfasts). it’s just this is a fairly large hole and I thought there should be a better way.

I tried using Sketchup, but I’m busy working in my shop, drawing is much faster also the graph paper is scaled to 1/4″ imperial (6.35mm for metric) squares.

Enter the “1st Dog Hole Lever”, this handy contraption will sit on the left inside of the right leg and will extricate your flush bench dog with abandon. This takes some extra work to install, but not that much and I do not believe it will interfere with any clamping operations. As this is my idea and I have not seen anyone do this (every Split Top Roubo Workbench i’ve seen just drills the big hole) time will tell. If it does get in the way, you can simply remove the pivot nail and proceed with your clamping or other operations and replace it when you’re done.

Dog Lever

If any of you are building or planning on building this bench, you may want to add this little detail. I know I really like using it (and my cat does too).

My old bench had a vise that would rack, so I cut out several pieces of 4″ X 1 1/2″ x 1/4″ popular that I had lying around and drilled a 3/4″ hole (you may have to sand the holes or the dowel little bit to get the pieces to rotate easily) in all of them and inserted a 3/4″ dowel with 2 scrap turned end pieces screwed and glued and presto a variable anti-rack block, It can go from 1/” to 2″. This is not an original idea, I have seen wooden versions of similar rack stops on the internet and there is a plastic version of this in a Lee Valley catalog. It’s just really easy to make and works great!

Here it is in action with the 1/2″ selection or 1/4″ + 1/4″Another Shot

Yes folks, I’m talking Hand Tools. Hand Tools are one of my favorite topics. If you live in the South East like I do, then you are privileged to have some wonderful tool resources to draw on to add metal pieces of industrial art to add to your toolbox.

There are several places I search for these treasures of yesteryear. Two of my favorites are Craigslist and Marketplace. Sometimes they advertise rusty stuff other people just pass over, with patience, a keen eye and if you really look closely you can find some great deals.

Yard Sales are another place to find some really nice deals. People are generally unaware of the value of their old tools collecting dust in their garages. Also, most people are willing to negotiate price, so haggling is part of the fun.

Flea Markets, I love Flea Markets! But beware, dealers often know the eBay price of most of their items and have them priced pretty high. Look for the non-dealers and people that have boxes of rusty tools under the tables, that is where you’ll find a lot of great tool deals. That being said, if a dealer has a tool that you cannot find after lots of searching and it’s a reasonable price, it’s ok to pull the trigger and buy it. No guilt trip here.

Estate Sales, Estate sales are awesome and dangerous as you can get caught up and buy lots of stuff you don’t need. Go check out some near you and you will be rewarded by some really nice tools sometimes, and not have to pay lots of cash for them.

Thrift Shops are a good place to find tools. I found the plane pictured above at my local Habitat ReStore for $15. Yes, $15 although it was covered in rust and needed more work that I have ever had to do to any plane to get it in the pictured condition. Now, it’s a very nice tool and a valued addition to my tool inventory. Click here to see a picture of it before I cleaned it up.

The places I have mentioned up to now are really great and you can add lots of tools to your tool box from these sources without breaking the bank. As you get more experience and start to know what to look for in old tools, you’ll start seeing tools you may already have or do not use or need. That’s ok, because you can go ahead a buy them if they are a good deal, then resale them on eBay (tools sell really well on eBay) to help pay for you hobby, vocation, avocation or tool addiction. Keep in mind some of these tools may need some work if you plan to use them yourself, but a little effort will be rewarded by a lifetime of faithful service by these vintage beauties. I find that in getting them ready for use, you also learn a lot more about them and enhance your understanding and experience. I also consider it fun to see them emerge from the rust to become wonderful tools.

MWTCA or Mid West Tool Collectors Association. If you want to see a lot of tools, go to a local MWTCA tool meet. They have lots of vendors and regular tool owners selling (and buying) tools. You can learn a lot about tools from these vendors and the prices are usually pretty reasonable. They sometimes have estate sales at the tools meets and you can get some real bargains at those.

Last but not by any stretch least is Ed’s Tool Store over Roy Underhill’s Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro NC. A better collection of reasonably priced vintage hand tools will not be found anywhere in the South East. Do yourself a favor and Email Ed Lebetkin to find out when he is open and plan a trip to Pittsboro to see this store. You can thank me later.

Now that you have a full set of tools, go ahead and make yourself a tool box https://lostartpress.com/products/the-anarchists-tool-chest I can’t recommend this book enough. Chris Schwarz is an excellent writer and your whole concept of Hand Tools will be reset after reading this book. Just buy it! Get both the Hardbound and the PDF version if you can afford it. If not, At least get the Hardbound edition.

What tools do you need to start woodworking? Look here at a PDF I wrote to get a list of the tools I consider to be first in any beginners tool box.

It’s that time of year when the weather gets cooler and a young man’s thoughts turn to tools. Yes that’s right tools. I have been thinking a lot about tools lately. But wait, you might say as you read this and possibly know how old I am, Aaron, your not a young man! Well everything has perspective and in the woodworking world, I am considered a young man 🙂 Any who, I have been thinking about tools for a few reasons;
1) I had a dear friend pass away not long ago and I have been helping his widow get the most value out of them by selling locally, online and at a recent vintage tool sale. (this is still ongoing and is likely going to take a few months to finish)
2) I have a very small shop, so I am very choosy about what tools go in there, so I have to sell tools all the time to keep from becoming a tool hoarder and being crushed by a falling stack of wooden planes or being sliced to death by improperly stored panel saws.
3) My dear long suffering wife has had to put up with my “hobbies” (too many to name here, it is a looooong list) and the attendant mess that comes along with said hobbies. I need to reorganize so that means optimizing the space I take up ( this is currently 2 complete rooms and part of our bedroom and part of our living room :-/ .)

This brings me to to the topic of todays blog. “Tool Chest Dump”

After a few years of using the Dutch Tools Chest, I love it even more today than when I finished it. It has stood the test of time and keeps my beloved tools safe and secure from dust and the ravages of the shop environment. While usable I have not actually finished it. In my enthusiasm and need for the storage at the time, after paining it, I promptly loaded it with tools and and it has been there working every day but not yet complete. That changes now. That means I have to dump out the contents (read carefully place the contents on my bench) to proceed with the project below.

I have been mulling over the finishing touches and some upgrades and adding some features to my Dutch Tools Chest . I have never trimmed off the bolts that hold my handles and this makes me nervous when I moving my No. 4 in and out as it could damage the tote handle. I would also like to install a holster for my nice block plane. I have added some additional tools to the chest and I would like to find or create a better solutions for them, namely some mortising chisels and a 1 1/4″ Firmer chisel. All the other tools have a “home” and are quite happy there.

First the block plane holster

Chris Schwarz put this one in his chest and I am going to do the same thing in mine. My block plane is very nice and I don’t need it knocking around the chest, but instead safe and sound in it’s own home. I have some scrap leather and it should not be an issue to create a holster.

Handle bolts

These are a bit trickier. I do not have a Dremel tool and cutting them with a hack saw is not ideal as there are 8 of them and I dislike using a hack saw. I believe I will use my grinder to grind down 1 bolt to see if that works. I need to remove about 3/16″ from each bolt and I can quench them in water to keep them from loosing their temper. After shortening the bolts, I will recess the inside bolt holes to make the nuts more flush and then nail some light 1-2 lb. leather to cover it.

Additional Chisel Storage

I’ll have to get back to you later on this one. This chest is pretty packed as it is and I will really have to get creative. It can be done but it will take some soaking time to come up with a usable and practical solution.

The Dutch Tools Chest after 4 Years Use

The chest is in amazing shape. It has been rock solid and has survived a couple of trips to the Woodwright’s School. One aspect I love is the breadboard top. It was made to allow for the seasonal expansion and contraction of the large poplar board that makes up the bulk of the top. You can see in the winter that it contracts about 3/32″ and the side rail protrudes while the poplar board contracts and then in the summer (when I made the chest) it comes right back to flush. Wood movement in action boys and girls is a cool thing as long as you plan for it 🙂

-Aaron

P.S. If you have any questions about the tools listed in the top picture or anything else in this blog, just click the “CONTACT US” link in the menu and I will be glad to help you out.

Sometimes a project just screams “You must complete me now!”. Well, that is what my latest project was saying to me. I was lucky and picked up a nice pine standing cabinet from Freecycle.org a while back and it looked like it only had one coat of polyurethane on it and the cabinet looked to be 15 or 20 years old. I knew it wold make a great addition to my shop as a paint and adhesives storage cabinet.

J.E. Moser’s Milk Paint

I removed all the hardware and sanded it with 280 grit sandpaper. My plan was to use Lexington Green milk paint from J.E. Moser’s as this is one of my favorite colors. But when I checked I only had enough for a small project. I did have quite a bit of the Salem Red.

Fortunately whoever originally finished this piece did not put many coats so the sanding went pretty smoothly. There were some dings and I had to set a few finish nails, but nothing major.

Cabinet with one coat of milk paint

I have to say, I am really starting to love milk paint. It is non-toxic, has no fumes, dries quickly, water soluble and it looks great. Here is a good site with lots of information about milk paint if you have never used it before. The first and second coats do not usually look very good, but the third and fourth are really nice. This piece was an exception, It took the milk paint like it had been waiting for it. This piece has been an absolute pleasure to paint! New wood sometimes resists milk paint especially if it still has some moisture in it, but this cabinet is very dry and been really fun to paint.

After I finish the painting, I will take some brown grocery bag and crumple it up and really give it a good buffing. this will burnish the surface and get it ready for the paste wax top coat.

Check back tomorrow to see how it turned out 🙂

Shop Cat helping paint dry

“Happy Shavings”
-Aaron

P.S. If you have not seen my YouTube channel click => Here to check it out or click on the YouTube link on the sidebar.

In an effort to help people just getting started in Hand Tool or Traditional Woodworking, I have written a list of what I consider the first 10 essential tools for woodworking. The link below is to my Free PDF document with the Top 10 list and I hope it helps you on your woodworking journey.

One of the things I love to do in the shop is make tools. I have made saws, tool boxes, knives, mallets, hammers and other assorted useful items. One thing I always wanted to make but was hesitant to, was a plane. Any plane would do, a jack, molding or scrub plane would be great. One of the reasons I have hesitated is because planes are different. They do take some skill and experience to set the blade and the wedge at the right angles where they actuality cut wood and eject the shavings. The history of planes goes back for centuries and they have been made by hand for that long but these things take skill to make and get right.

With that in mind, I had been keeping an eye on Bill Anderson’s plane classes at the Woodwright’s School for some time. Recently (a year ago), I got my chance, I was on the wait list for a joiner plane class and got the call at the last minute. Let me tell you, I was excited. In this class you built a 28″ long 19th century joiner plane complete with a vintage iron. This was a three-day class and I loved every minute of it. I finished all the major parts in the class. All that was needed was to widen the mouth for the iron a bit, as it was a little too snug, make the front and back buttons and make a knob.

The buttons and the knob were afterthoughts, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it needed a little color. I added the cocobolo buttons, cocobolo being a very hard wood will protect the plane ends when I adjust the iron with blows from my wooden mallet. The knob was also a last minute item where I had a hardwood button to put in the top, but I wanted more. I put a 4″ long dowel in the hole already drilled for the top button and I liked the way it felt when I used the plane. Excitedly, I went to the lathe and turned a nice cocobolo knob.

I was going around and around in my head on how to fasten this knob to the plane body and then an old technique came to mind. I would use a foxtail wedge. Basically an exposed wedge is one you do after sawing a slot and inserting a dowel or spindle in a hole and driving the wedge home. A foxtail wedge is the same, but you do not have access to the wedge to drive the wedge with the mallet, so the bottom of the hole acts as a stop. You have to widen the bottom of the hole into the end grain and put the wedge in the sawn slot and insert the knob in the hole, and with a mallet, you drive the knob to the bottom forcing the wedge to widen the bottom of the knob locking it in place. At that point, you have a glue-free solidly fixed knob. Click here to see a picture and description of how a foxtail wedge works.

A little sanding and a few adjustments here and there and the plane was ready for the finish. Planes are usually just finished with some type of oil and wax. I put 3 coats of Danish Oil on and then some wax and she is ready to go to work.

This was a great project and it still was a bit difficult, but Bill is such a great teacher, I was able to do all the complicated work in the class, under his guidance. If you get a chance, go take a class at the Woodwright’s School, you’ll be glad you did 🙂

You might not know it, but I have been looking for a brass hammer for some time now. I need a brass hammer to tap my wooden plane’s irons to set them at just the right cutting depth.

You see, brass hammers are preferable to steel hammers as the brass is softer than the plane iron and will not damage it where the steel hammer will “mushroom” the steel and that is bad.

I went to the MWTCA tool meet yesterday and I happened across this nice little beauty in the rough for $5.00. A real bargain, as these babys can cost a lot of dough new. It had a brass head and brass handle with a duct tape grip.

I could have just left well enough alone and used it happily, but I just had to make it better.

I had to get that duct tape off of there because it was pretty nasty and really old so it was breaking down. This came off with a knife and the brass rod handle was in good shape. I was really struggling on how to properly put a wooden handle of the brass rod. This decision was made for me, as I was cleaning the head the brass rod came right out of the head.

The high end tool manufacturer Lie-Nielson used to make a really nice cross-peen hammer and I liked the handle shape, so I decided to mimic that shape.

I had to re-drill and enlarge the hole in the hammer head so it would accommodate a wooden handle. I drilled half way through on the top of the head with the next larger size bit so when I wedged the handle it would not would not come off.

I had a nice piece of cherry that was perfect for the job. So 30 minutes on the lathe and I had me a new handle. The Lie-Nielson cross-peen hammers have a more slender handle than what I made for my handle. I made my handle a little thicker to accommodate the heavier head on my hammer. The hardest part of this whole project was fitting the cylindrical head to the cylindrical handle and getting it to fit.

This is what I ended up with. Quite a change from the hammer I brought home yesterday! I am really happy with this and I hope it gives me many years of good service.

You may recall from my previous post, that my half-finished spring pole lathe had become a temporary “bookshelf” due to an injury. Now, oh happy day, it has been repurposed into a functioning lathe! This project, by far, was one of the most difficult I have undertaken. I don’t mean technically difficult, but physically difficult. But let me say up front that it did not have to be this way. Sometimes, we work against ourselves and are our own worst enemy.

I believe improper bench height was to blame for my injury which snowballed into the delay of my lathe project, my absence from a week-long, much-anticipated class at Roy Underhill’s Woodwright’s School, and the ill temperament of my wife. When I purchased my bench, I was not aware of the proper bench height. I have since read and learned more about benches and I determined that by cutting off 4″ it would be the perfect height for most of the work I do.

For me, it was a hard lesson learned. I say to you: Make sure the surface you’re working on is at the approbate height for the activity you are engaging in. You do not have to have two or three benches to do all your work, just build appliances to add to your bench or to use on the floor to keep the work at the correct height. Use a knee-height saw bench to do ripping and crosscut sawing. Use a “Moxon Vise” (this is my next appliance) attached to your bench to do dovetail work higher up. Do chopping and planing work at normal bench height.

Even with the injury, I have loved making this lathe! It is a joy to use and is a wonder of engineering. This design was created by Roy Underhill, adapting a centuries-old spring pole tradition and modifying it to his need to have a portable lathe to take to shows and demonstrations to create interest.

I made several modifications to the design for my own use. For one, I used copper wire to connect the pole to the short side of the rocker arm; I used what I had on hand – just 12-gauge electrical wire. I also used it to fasten the 3/8″ leather strap to the long end of the rocker and the foot board. I used a leather belt to connect the two spring poles. The original design used a flattened piece of copper pipe, I was hoping the leather would give me some “lively” action and it does. Plus, if it breaks while I’m away from home, I have an awl and can punch a new hole in the belt I am wearing at the time and be back in business in two minutes!

I was going to use weaving loom shuttle points for my centers, but I did not have an easy way to fasten them in a way that gives me room to work between the piece being turned and the tail or head stock. So I opted for a 1/2″ 13 x 1′ steel rod which I ground into two pieces (one 7″, the other 4 1/2″), then ground and polished the ends to a point. I also ordered some weld nuts, 1/2″-13. These allowed me to fasten the threaded rod to the head and tail stock.

Notice the “Plain Finish Malleable Iron Handles, 1/2″-13 Threaded with Through Hole.” These were installed to operate the screw in and out on the tail stock and also to tighten the poppet on the tool rest. I also bought a bar of brass (3/16″ thick, 3/4″ width, 1′) to use on top of the tool rest. I was thinking the brass would not mar my tools but would protect the wood from tool damage and is replaceable if it wears out. After using this for a little while, it has become evident that brass is not going to work the way I had intended. Brass is so soft that my tools are catching and digging into it and keeps the tools from “skating” along the tool rest. I will be replacing the brass with steel soon.

Here are but a few of the many things I want to make with the lathe: Spinning top, a three legged camp stool, handles for my long suffering chisels and files, blanks for wooden screws, a new pump drill, and new handles for my turning saw.

The finish on the lathe will be just 3 coats of boiled linseed oil (boiled means it has additives so that the oil dries and hardens). I believe this lathe will be around for a long time. One great advantage of building a machines like this is that if it ever breaks you know how to fix it. Using a tool you make yourself gives you great satisfaction and really energizes you for the next project.

This type of lathe lends itself to green woodworking. A lot of chair legs and spindles are made with green wood. Some turners turn the parts most of the way and then either kiln-dry the parts or wait for nature to do it for them and the turn them one last time to the finished size to remove the oval shape that comes when wood dries.

Roy said in his book, “The Woodwright’s Guide: Working Wood with Wedge and Edge,” – “I want you to make this lathe.” Well, I did and I glad I did. This tool is a real pleasure to use and does good work. It is not loud and and allows me to enjoy yet another dimension of my favorite hobby/obsession/therapy.

A few weeks ago, I posted some pictures of my spring pole lathe and the great progress I was making. Well, as always, life happens, and manages to alter the best laid plans of men. The lathe was to a point where it was looking really good. After chopping out the mortises, I noticed a bit of stiffness in my arm. I stopped working for the day and rested for the night. My arm was very swollen and I could not fully flex it. Where does the “Spring Pole Bookshelf” come in you may ask? Please bear with me and I will explain.

I rested my arm for a week, and took anti-inflammatories, and it was feeling better, although still a little swollen. Then, I made the mistake of using it again to install a storm door that was a Mother’s Day gift for my very patient wife. It re-injured my elbow so badly that I had to do the unthinkable; I had to cancel my Moravian Workbench class at Roy’s Woodwright’s School. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when I realized I would not be able to physically stand up to a solid week of punishing mortise chopping, but I contacted Roy and let him know I was not going to be able to make the class.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to this past weekend, and after going to the Doctor and getting some stronger medication and a new arm brace, my injury was doing better. I decided to take it slow and do some limited work. I did some plane refurbishing, which amounted to some sanding of the sole of the plane and blade sharpening. I took frequent rests and iced my elbow after each session. I was not feeling any pain afterwards, and I could tell it was healing.

After doing some deep thinking about my predicament, I surmised that the root cause of the problem was the height of my workbench. I have not discussed my workbench a lot as it is a commercial bench I bought from Grizzly before I knew any better. It’s funny, for what I paid for this bench, I could have purchased the material for a really nice bench. I have made do with this light-weight, thin-topped, crappy-vised bench-shaped object for almost 3 years now, and I have never adjusted the height. That all changed. I reduced the height of my bench by 4 inches. I must tell you, this really made a huge difference. Planing is easier and so is sawing.

Now we get to the “Spring Pole Bookshelf” part: As I was piddling around the shop this weekend, I was cleaning, and I placed s few books on my lathe. They fit nicely on the bed and it got me thinkin’….If I cut a board the same shape as the tail stock, I could use it for a sliding bookend. This was just the small project I felt I could tackle with my limited elbow capacity.

I sawed out the block of wood and drilled a hole for a 1/2″ dowel rod and inserted the rod after placing the bookend on the lathe bed. I put my woodworking books on the lathe bed and adjusted the new bookend. I cut a wedge to set the bookend in place and it worked great; who needs a lathe when you have such a nice bookshelf! I took a few pics and then went to rest my arm and elbow on some ice.

I like this design concept and I will probably make a bookshelf similar to this after I complete the spring pole lathe. Yes, I plan to finish the lathe. This bookshelf was only a side-diversion to entertain me until I am physically able to continue the lathe project.

I will publish a list of my books in a later post. This is a combination of deliberate purchases, books I’ve had for years and lucky finds in the annual library book sale. All of the LAP or Lost Art Press books I own are definitely deliberate purchases.

One side note, I was planning on doing a “The Onion“-esque post with a title like “Traditional Woodworker Injures Self in Freak Strain-Related Accident” but decided I’m not the professional humorist like those that populate “The Onion.”